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When nature Photobombs..

I enjoy going out in the mornings photographing flowers around the half acre. Both the native and non-native flowers. This big, bright hibiscus bloomed a couple of days ago which made it an immediate target for an iPhone image, taken with the CameraAwesome app. I took quite a few images to get one image that hopefully was decent enough to possibly offer a print of (not .) However, when I got inside and examined the images, I found that I had been PhotoBombed! At the time I had not noticed they were there… hiding out in the leaves… but now, they stand out. And they are in every image that I took. Do you see them? Look closely.

I have seen a lot of Photo Bombed images with horses, cats, dogs etc.. bombing someones image. But I had never ran across these guys. Do you see them yet?

Look closer..

Now you see them, and after a while their bright red color will stand out! A pair of amorous Red Bugs, of which there are four species here in Florida and I think I have, at one time or another, ALL of them in my yard! These particular ones are called Cotton Stainers. Dysdercus suturellus. In 1910 the cotton stainer was a most destructive pest to Cotton in Florida.

Cotton Stainers lost their dominance on cotton in the mid-twentieth century primarily because of the elimination of it as a viable crop, and the development of pesticides. Cotton stainers are obviously still around doing damage to some fruits and ornamental plants like my Hibiscus. Stainers suck juices out of plants, sometimes killing them. They also PhotoBomb. No I didn’t kill these guys, I just picked them off my plant and gave them a good lecture!